---
layout: docs
page_title: nomad var put reference
description: |-
  The `nomad var put` command creates or updates a Nomad variable.
---

# `nomad var put` command reference

The `var put` command creates or updates an existing [variable][].

## Usage

```plaintext
nomad var put [options] <variable spec file reference> [<key>=<value>]...
nomad var put [options] <path to store variable> [<variable spec file reference>] [<key>=<value>]...
```

Variable metadata and items can be supplied using a [variable
specification][varspec], by using command arguments, or by a combination of the
two techniques. An entire variable specification can be provided to the command
via standard input (stdin) by setting the first argument to "-" or from a file
by using an @-prefixed path to a variable specification file. When providing
variable data via stdin, you must provide the `-in` flag with the format of the
specification, which must be either "hcl" or "json".

Items to be stored in the variable can be supplied using the specification, as a
series of key-value pairs, or both. The value for a key-value pair can be a
string, an @-prefixed file reference, or a '-' to get the value from stdin. Item
values provided from file references or stdin are consumed as-is with no
additional processing and do not require the input format to be specified.

Values supplied as command line arguments supersede values provided in any
variable specification piped into the command or loaded from file. If ACLs are
enabled, this command requires the `variables:write` capability for the
destination namespace and path. See the [ACL policy][] documentation for
details.

## Restrictions

Variable paths are restricted to [RFC3986][] URL-safe characters that don't
conflict with the use of the characters `@` and `.` in template blocks. This
includes alphanumeric characters and the special characters `-`, `_`, `~`, and
`/`. Paths may be up to 128 bytes long. The following regex matches the allowed
paths: `^[a-zA-Z0-9-_~/]{1,128}$`

The keys for the items in a variable may contain any character, but keys
containing characters outside the set of Unicode letters, Unicode digits, and
the underscore (`_`) can not be read directly using dotted references in Nomad's
template engine. Instead, they require the use of the `index` template function
to directly access their values. This does not impact cases where the keys and
values are read using the `range` function.

Variable items are restricted to 64KiB in size. This limit is calculated by
taking the sum of the length in bytes of all of the unencrypted keys and values.

## Options

- `-check-index` `(int: <unset>)`: If set, the variable is only acted upon if
  the server-side version's index matches the provided value. When a variable
  specification contains a modify index, that modify index is used as the
  check-index for the check-and-set operation and can be overridden using this
  flag.

- `-force`: Perform this operation regardless of the state or index of the
  variable on the server-side.

- `-in` `(enum: hcl | json)`: Parser to use for data supplied via standard input
  or when the variable specification's type can not be known using the file
  extension. Defaults to "json".

- `-out` `(enum: go-template | hcl | json | none | table)`: Format to render
  created or updated variable. Defaults to "none" when stdout is a terminal and
  "json" when the output is redirected.

- `-template` `(string: "")`: Template to render output with. Required when
  format is "go-template", invalid for other formats.

- `-verbose`: Provides additional information via standard error to preserve
  standard output (stdout) for redirected output.

- `-ui`: Open the variable page in the browser.

## Examples

Writes the data to the path "secret/creds":

```shell-session
$ nomad var put secret/creds passcode=my-long-passcode
```

The data can also be consumed from a file on disk by prefixing with the "@"
symbol. For example, you can store a variable using a specification created with
the `nomad var init` command.

```shell-session
$ nomad var put secret/foo @spec.nv.json
```

Or it can be read from standard input using the "-" symbol:

```shell-session
$ echo "abcd1234" | nomad var put secret/foo bar=-
```

## General options

@include 'general_options.mdx'

[variable]: /nomad/docs/concepts/variables
[varspec]: /nomad/docs/other-specifications/variables
[ACL Policy]: /nomad/docs/other-specifications/acl-policy#variables
[RFC3986]: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986#section-2
